This Training Program, Mechanisms of Hypertension and Cardiovascular Diseases, Suzanne Oparil, MD, PD/PI, offers multidisciplinary postdoctoral training in fundamental aspects of the pathophysiology of hypertension and related cardiovascular disease (CVD), in innovative approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions and in translating basic and clinical research findings to the population level. This Training Program advances the spectrum of available training in the following Thematic Focus Areas: Basic Science (fundamental training in mechanisms of inflammatory vascular injury and repair and oxidative stress/free radical injury; T0); Translational Science (translation-to-humans, early clinical trials, testing basic science discoveries for clinical applicability; T1-T2) Clinica Science (research to improve knowledge of new therapies, medical applications and clinical interventions; T2-T3), and Population Science (clinical trials to wide-spread evidence-based practice that improves the overall public health; T3-T4). Faculty Mentors offer training in these rapidly evolving research areas: behavioral, epidemiologic and population/prevention research, state-of-the-art clinical trials, comparative effectiveness research, biostatistics/quantitative sciences, genomics, health disparities research, other-Omics, and regenerative and reparative medicine. Trainees will have a 2-3 year experience in laboratory, clinical/translational or population- based research under the mentorship of T32 Program Faculty Mentors. Trainees will spend at least 80% of time in investigation, coursework, and in career development activities. The goal of this Program is to prepare trainees for careers in fundamental, clinical, translational and population-based research in hypertension and CVD. The educational experiences available to our trainees will equip them with the technical skills and theoretical background needed to make them competitive for faculty positions in prestigious academic institutions, in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry or in health care delivery research. An important goal of this Training Program is to build productive, efficient, and cutting edge interdisciplinary research and training programs. Thus, this Program and its Faculty Mentors partner with the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS). The mission of the UAB CCTS is to transform UAB's environment by building interdisciplinary research teams through educational ingenuity, regulatory reorganization, resource coordination, and methodological innovation. The UAB CCTS is one of 62 nationwide CTSA Centers, and the ONLY CTSA Program in Alabama. Relevance: There is a shortage of basic, translational, clinical and population scientists trained to use cutting edge approaches to problems related to hypertension and CVD, a leading cause of death and disability in the US. This is the only Training Program in Alabama that provides highly integrated bench to bedside postdoctoral training. The burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the United States (US) is steadily increasing, in part due to the aging of the US population, increased prevalence of conditions such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease and the metabolic syndrome and the emergence of high-risk populations, i.e., racial/ethnic minorities such as African-Americans and Hispanics, and persons infected with HIV/AIDS. These increasing health needs underscore the importance of training basic scientists, clinical scientists and population scientists in an environment conduciv to multidisciplinary team research in order to test more effective approaches to the prevention and treatment of hypertension and related vascular disease and other comorbidities. This Training Program addresses these goals, and is the only postdoctoral Training Program in the state of Alabama with a primary focus on hypertension and CVD. (End of Abstract)